LSU Heads West for Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic
LSU Heads West for Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic
BATON ROUGE, La. – The fourth-ranked LSU softball team will hit the road for the first time this weekend, traveling to sunny California to participate in th
BATON ROUGE, La. – The fourth-ranked LSU softball team will hit the road for the first time this weekend, traveling to sunny California to participate in the first weekend of the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Palm Springs.
The Tigers will play five games in California this weekend beginning on Friday with LSU squaring off with Arizona and Bethune-Cookman, UCSB and UCF on Saturday and UCLA on Sunday morning before returning home to Baton Rouge. Website FloSoftball will be streaming every game of the tournament this weekend, as fans who are wanting to watch LSU’s games must sign up for one of their two subscription options to watch online.
LSU opens play with the Wildcats at 5:30 p.m. CT, turning around later that night to take on Bethune-Cookman at 10 p.m. CT. On Saturday, LSU begins with the Gauchos at 5 p.m. CT, with a meeting against the Knights at 7:30 p.m. CT. The Tigers close out the tournament with the Bruins at 11 a.m. CT. Continuous updates of the team’s competitions can also be found on their social media pages on Facebook and Twitter.
The Tigers put on a solid early-season showing over the weekend, going 4-1 in the Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge and putting up some solid offensive and pitching numbers to sit at No. 4 in this week’s national rankings heading into a big weekend out in California. LSU earned run-rule victories all four wins the group racked up last weekend, scoring double figure runs in two.
LSU’s only loss on the weekend came against Pacific in the first of two games against the visiting Tigers, after producing its lowest hit and run totals of the weekend. The Purple and Gold bounced back in a big way the very next day, scoring 10 runs and producing its highest hit total of the weekend with 13 base knocks against Pacific to win 10-1 in five to cap play in the competition.
Head coach Beth Torina said. “There are some things we need to work on, but we have a better plan going forward and I think we’ll take this and use it and get better from it.”
Offensively, LSU ended the weekend outscoring their four opponents 42-5, hitting .385 as a group at the plate with 42 total hits. 11 of those hits were for extra bases, with seven doubles, a triple and three home runs, with two being grand slams.
In the UConn game alone, the Tigers sent 17 batters to the plate in the third inning, scoring all 13 of its runs in that frame to blitz past the Huskies in what ended up being a 13-2 victory. It was the second-most runs scored in a single inning in team history, two shy of the record of 15 set back in 2004 against Nicholls.
One of the players swinging a hot bat was Sahvanna Jaquish, who was named the SEC’s Player of the Week on Monday after earning nine hits and driving in nine in 13 at-bats. Of the nine, six came in that 13-run frame against UConn, slugging 1.077 with a .765 on-base percentage.
Nine different players earned multiple hits on the weekend, including Bianka Bell, Kellsi Kloss and Bailey Landry who each had four. Bell had one of the two grand slams, with Jenna Kreamer scoring the other, helping total nine players who drove in multiple runs during the weekend.
LSU’s freshman class also got in on the action during their first collegiate weekend, as Shemiah Sanchez and Amber Serrett each finished with three hits, as Sanchez hit .600 with a double and three RBIs and Serrett driving in two and scoring three times. Elyse Thornhill played in one game and made her mark by ripping two doubles, while Taylor Satchell had LSU’s only triple of the weekend.
In the circle, LSU’s seasoned pitching staff produced a team earned run average of 0.52, pitching a pair of shutouts and holding the opposition to a combined .183 batting average. The quartet of pitchers threw 13 complete shutout innings, and the most runs given up in any game was just two.
Sophomore Carley Hoover earned two of the four wins, striking out 19 and allowing a single unearned run in 11 innings. She appeared in all three games, earning starts against Ohio State and Pacific, while coming in for relief and striking out the side in a single inning.
In her first start, Sydney Smith pitched a one-hitter, striking out eight with three walks in a win over North Florida, earning the lowest opponent batting average of the weekend at 0.59. Allie Walljasper did not walk a single batter in six innings, while Baylee Corbello gave up just five hits in the start against UConn.
This weekend will be one of the more stringent tests the team will face before beginning SEC Play in three weeks, as Arizona and UCLA both come into the series ranked in the Top 10, while UCF is just outside but in the Top 15 of the major national polls.
The Tigers and Wildcats have built up a mini rivalry of sorts over the last few seasons, with LSU meeting in both the regular season and postseason in the two previous years. Two seasons ago, LSU won a regular season meeting but lost out in the regional round in Tucson, while last year, LSU won in Palm Springs and swept two in the Super Regional round to advance to the Women’s College World Series.
“This weekend will be a good learning experience, and we’ll know a lot more about ourselves when we get back,” Torina said.
We’re going to see a lot of different looks, and every team we play does something well and it’s going to be nice to see how we match up against all of them.
The Tigers will play five games in California this weekend beginning on Friday with LSU squaring off with Arizona and Bethune-Cookman, UCSB and UCF on Saturday and UCLA on Sunday morning before returning home to Baton Rouge. Website FloSoftball will be streaming every game of the tournament this weekend, as fans who are wanting to watch LSU’s games must sign up for one of their two subscription options to watch online.
LSU opens play with the Wildcats at 5:30 p.m. CT, turning around later that night to take on Bethune-Cookman at 10 p.m. CT. On Saturday, LSU begins with the Gauchos at 5 p.m. CT, with a meeting against the Knights at 7:30 p.m. CT. The Tigers close out the tournament with the Bruins at 11 a.m. CT. Continuous updates of the team’s competitions can also be found on their social media pages on Facebook and Twitter.
The Tigers put on a solid early-season showing over the weekend, going 4-1 in the Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge and putting up some solid offensive and pitching numbers to sit at No. 4 in this week’s national rankings heading into a big weekend out in California. LSU earned run-rule victories all four wins the group racked up last weekend, scoring double figure runs in two.
LSU’s only loss on the weekend came against Pacific in the first of two games against the visiting Tigers, after producing its lowest hit and run totals of the weekend. The Purple and Gold bounced back in a big way the very next day, scoring 10 runs and producing its highest hit total of the weekend with 13 base knocks against Pacific to win 10-1 in five to cap play in the competition.
The silver lining here is that we learned a lot about ourselves last weekend.
Head coach Beth Torina said. “There are some things we need to work on, but we have a better plan going forward and I think we’ll take this and use it and get better from it.”
Offensively, LSU ended the weekend outscoring their four opponents 42-5, hitting .385 as a group at the plate with 42 total hits. 11 of those hits were for extra bases, with seven doubles, a triple and three home runs, with two being grand slams.
In the UConn game alone, the Tigers sent 17 batters to the plate in the third inning, scoring all 13 of its runs in that frame to blitz past the Huskies in what ended up being a 13-2 victory. It was the second-most runs scored in a single inning in team history, two shy of the record of 15 set back in 2004 against Nicholls.
One of the players swinging a hot bat was Sahvanna Jaquish, who was named the SEC’s Player of the Week on Monday after earning nine hits and driving in nine in 13 at-bats. Of the nine, six came in that 13-run frame against UConn, slugging 1.077 with a .765 on-base percentage.
Nine different players earned multiple hits on the weekend, including Bianka Bell, Kellsi Kloss and Bailey Landry who each had four. Bell had one of the two grand slams, with Jenna Kreamer scoring the other, helping total nine players who drove in multiple runs during the weekend.
LSU’s freshman class also got in on the action during their first collegiate weekend, as Shemiah Sanchez and Amber Serrett each finished with three hits, as Sanchez hit .600 with a double and three RBIs and Serrett driving in two and scoring three times. Elyse Thornhill played in one game and made her mark by ripping two doubles, while Taylor Satchell had LSU’s only triple of the weekend.
In the circle, LSU’s seasoned pitching staff produced a team earned run average of 0.52, pitching a pair of shutouts and holding the opposition to a combined .183 batting average. The quartet of pitchers threw 13 complete shutout innings, and the most runs given up in any game was just two.
Sophomore Carley Hoover earned two of the four wins, striking out 19 and allowing a single unearned run in 11 innings. She appeared in all three games, earning starts against Ohio State and Pacific, while coming in for relief and striking out the side in a single inning.
In her first start, Sydney Smith pitched a one-hitter, striking out eight with three walks in a win over North Florida, earning the lowest opponent batting average of the weekend at 0.59. Allie Walljasper did not walk a single batter in six innings, while Baylee Corbello gave up just five hits in the start against UConn.
This weekend will be one of the more stringent tests the team will face before beginning SEC Play in three weeks, as Arizona and UCLA both come into the series ranked in the Top 10, while UCF is just outside but in the Top 15 of the major national polls.
The Tigers and Wildcats have built up a mini rivalry of sorts over the last few seasons, with LSU meeting in both the regular season and postseason in the two previous years. Two seasons ago, LSU won a regular season meeting but lost out in the regional round in Tucson, while last year, LSU won in Palm Springs and swept two in the Super Regional round to advance to the Women’s College World Series.
“This weekend will be a good learning experience, and we’ll know a lot more about ourselves when we get back,” Torina said.
We’re going to see a lot of different looks, and every team we play does something well and it’s going to be nice to see how we match up against all of them.